SBI PO Prelims 2017: English Quiz – Set 2

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here is a set of English Quiz for SBI PO Prelims on Comprehension Test.

Read the following passage carefully and answer
the questions that follow.

Kazuko Nakane’s history of the early Japanese
immigrants to central California’s Pajaro Valley focuses on the development of
farming communities there from 1890 to 1940. The Issei (first-generation
immigrants) were brought into the Pajaro Valley to raise sugar beets. Like
Issei laborers in American cities, Japanese men in rural areas sought
employment via the “boss” system. The system comprised three elements: immigrant
wage laborers; Issei boardinghouses where laborers stayed; and labor
contractors, who gathered workers for a particular job and then negotiated a
contract between workers and employer. This same system was originally utilized
by the Chinese laborers who had preceded the Japanese. A related institution
was the “labor club,” which provided job information and negotiated employment
contracts and other legal matters, such as the rental of land, for Issei who
chose to belong and paid an annual fee to the cooperative for membership. When
the local sugar beet industry collapsed in 1902, the Issei began to lease land
from the valley’s strawberry farmers. The Japanese provided the labor and the
crop was divided between laborers and landowners. The Issei thus moved quickly
from wage-labor employment to sharecropping agreements. A limited amount of
economic progress was made as some Issei were able to rent or buy farmland
directly, while others joined together to form farming corporations. As the
Issei began to operate farms, they began to marry and start families, forming
an established Japanese American community. Unfortunately, the Issei’s efforts
to attain agricultural independence were hampered by government restrictions,
such as the Alien Land Law of 1913. But immigrants could circumvent such
exclusionary laws by leasing or purchasing land in their American-born
children’s names. Nakane’s case study of one rural Japanese American community
provides valuable information about the lives and experiences of the Issei. It
is, however, too particularistic. This limitation derives from Nakane’s
methodology—that of oral history—which cannot substitute for a broader
theoretical or comparative perspective. Future research might well consider two
issues raised by her study: were the Issei of the Pajaro Valley similar to or
different from Issei in urban settings, and what variations existed between
rural Japanese American communities?

1.The
primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) defend
a controversial hypothesis presented in a history of early Japanese immigrants
to California
(B) dismiss a history of an early Japanese settlement in California as narrow
and ill constructed
(C) summarize and critique a history of an early Japanese settlement in
California
(D) compare a history of one Japanese American community with studies of
Japanese settlements throughout California
(E) examine the differences between Japanese and Chinese immigrants to central
California in the 1890’s

2. Which of
the following best describes a “labor club,” as defined in the passage?

(A) An
organization to which Issei were compelled to belong if they sought employment
in the Pajaro Valley
(B) An association whose members included labor contractors and landowning
“bosses”
(C) A type of farming corporation set up by Issei who had resided in the
Pajaro Valley for some time
(D) A cooperative association whose members were dues-paying Japanese
laborers
(E) A social organization to which Japanese laborers and their families
belonged

3. Based on
information in the passage, which of the following statements concerning the
Alien Land Law of 1913 is most accurate?

(A) It
excluded American-born citizens of Japanese ancestry from landownership
(B) It sought to restrict the number of foreign immigrants to California.
(C) It successfully prevented Issei from ever purchasing farmland.
(D) It was applicable to first-generation immigrants but not to their
American-born children.
(E)` It was passed under pressure from the Pajaro Valley’s strawberry farmers.

4. Several
Issei families join together to purchase a strawberry field and the necessary
farming equipment. Such a situation best exemplifies which of the following, as
it is described in the passage?

(A) A
typical sharecropping agreement
(B) A farming corporation
(C) A “labor club”
(D) The “boss” system
(E) Circumvention of the Alien Land Law

5. The
passage suggests that which of the following was an indirect consequence of the
collapse of the sugar beet industry in the Pajaro Valley?

(A) The
Issei formed a permanent, family-based community.
(B) Boardinghouses were built to accommodate the Issei.
(C) The Issei began to lease land in their children’s names.
(D) The Issei adopted a labor contract system similar to that used by Chinese
immigrants.
(E) The Issei suffered a massive dislocation caused by unemployment.

6. The
author of the passage would most likely agree that which of the following, if
it had been included in Nakane’s study, would best remedy the particularistic
nature of that study?

(A) A
statistical table comparing per capita income of Issei wage laborers and
sharecroppers in the Pajaro Valley
(B) A statistical table showing per capita income of Issei in the Pajaro Valley
from 1890 to 1940
(C) A statistical table showing rates of farm ownership by Japanese Americans
in four central California counties from 1890 to 1940
(D) A discussion of original company documents dealing with the Pajaro Valley
sugar beet industry at the turn of the century
(E) Transcripts of interviews conducted with members of the Pajaro Valley
Japanese American community who were born in the 1920’s and 1930’s

7. It can
be inferred from the passage that, when the Issei began to lease land from the
Valley’s strawberry farmers, the Issei most probably did which of the
following?

(A) They
used profits made from selling the strawberry crop to hire other Issei.
(B) They negotiated such agricultural contracts using the “boss” system.
(C) They paid for the use of the land with a share of the strawberry crop.
(D) They earned higher wages than when they raised sugar beets.
(E) They violated the Alien Land Law.